SBHS Drama may look a little different this year, but thanks to the hard work of 25 talented cast and crew members under the direction of Drama Director, Gail Kilkelly, Music Director Mark Violette, and Sound Engineer Ken Hypes, a musical version of the classic, A Christmas Carol is going live! (virtually). 

The SBHS Fall Drama production is a Zoom-based recorded musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In this production you’ll hear the familiar story of Scrooge and his ghostly visitors who relive the miser’s less-than charitable life, but ends with an opportunity for redemption. Sprinkled throughout the story are solos, duets and musical numbers performed by SBHS Drama students.

According to Kilkelly, "Our creative process began with one in-person meeting in September under one of the SBHS outdoor tents. Due to COVID restrictions, everything that followed, from auditions to rehearsals to post-production work, has been done remotely, and mostly on Zoom. It has been a process, and our first experience trying this new digital creative world."

This recorded production will be available for on-demand streaming via a link on the SBHS Website beginning Friday, Dec. 11^th at 7:00 pm and will be available until January 2^nd, 2021. The cast stars SBHS Junior Matthew Vigneau as Scrooge and the story is narrated in radio-play style by SBHS Junior Noah Goodman. Also featured is FHTMS student Orion Cooper performing in the role of Tiny Tim.

The production is free to the public, but if you are so inclined, donations to support this production can be sent to SBHS Drama through the high school address. Enjoy safely celebrating the season while supporting students! Thanks to all involved!

See the full cast list here. View Act I and Act II

While South Burlington Schools may be closed for in person learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, clubs and student groups have continued to meet through a variety of online platforms. In a recent meeting of the Coalition for Community Service, an idea was brought forth to create a thank you video to honor students' personal heroes during this pandemic. The Coalition found their enthusiastic volunteer in Anna Borrazzo '20 who just happens to be passionate about creating and editing videos. She even has plans to attend UConn next year to study marketing and is considering a career that incorporates video making such as commercial production.

In order to generate interest in the project, Borrazzo reached out to students via social media and through NEO message in addition to engaging Principal Patrick Burke and having him send a message to students. "The goal was to get as many people to participate as possible!" Borrazzo wrote, "It was also just a great opportunity to let the community members who are helping out know that they are greatly appreciated."

Mission accomplished. We hope everyone enjoys this inspirational video!

COVID-19 couldn't stop the ninth annual Japanese speech contest from continuing as planned. Luckily, physical distancing was easily maintained given the online nature of the contest. Video submissions were due March 22. According to Japanese Language instructor at SBHS Sinyoung Evans, three high school students won top honors.

Annika Imobersteg won first place in the intermediate division for her skit that introduced Japanese people to several places in the United States including Vermont and Hawaii. Annika is a senior and currently enrolled in Japanese 3.

Avery Houston and Jaden Cypes, both juniors currently enrolled in Japanese 2, won second place for their video at the introductory level. In their skit, they created a commercial for Cabot Cheese for Japanese audiences.

"The process of making the scripts from scratch and memorizing the lines creates good learning opportunities and all the participants enjoy the experience. Our SBHS students have been successfully completing their tasks and receiving good results every year," Evans said.

Evans, who has been teaching at SBHS since 2007 explained that the skit contest was developed in 2012 by members of the Association of Japanese Language Teachers of Vermont in order to promote Japanese language programs in colleges and high schools as well as to enhance communication skills and cultural understanding among students.

The contest is held every spring and participants are comprised of students enrolled in Japanese language courses across Vermont including SBHS, EHS, UVM, SMC, Champlain College, Middlebury College, Bennington College and others. "Based on the proficiency levels, students create their scripts and video tapes and upload them to the contest sites. Following the guidelines and rubrics, we Japanese instructors and selected native speakers of Japanese in the region score them and decide which entry is the first, the second, or third place in each section," Evans explained.

Congrats to all!

SBHS Freshmen were out and active in our community Oct. 16 for fall FCSD (Freshmen Community Service Day)! According to Peer Leadership teacher and Health Educator Erin Randall, freshmen community service day has been a tradition at South Burlington High School for several years.

"Every 9th grader is in an advisory group of about 12-15 students," Randall explained, "with a teacher and 2-3 junior and senior Peer Leaders (These advisory groups are called 'SLAMs' which stands for Student Leadership Advisory Meetings). Slams meet twice a week for 25 minutes at a time. Peer Leaders plan communication, decision making, and team building activities for their groups in addition to being role models. The junior and senior peer leaders are accepted into the program by application and they meet in a Peer Leadership class every other day taught by Hannah Dransfield or myself." 

In the fall, community service is conducted for half a day. Then, in the spring, the entire day is spent doing service projects throughout the community. See all of the locations students visited this fall below.

Shelburne Farms, Orchard School, Ronald McDonald House, Common Ground Center, Ascension Childcare, Folsom Elementary, Shelburne Museum, Chamberlin School, Catamount Family Center, Georgia Elementary, Shelburne Museum, Grand Isle School, Learning Adventure, Orchard School, Central School, and Homestead 1475.

Kudos to all who took part! 

Could you write, produce, and shoot a short film in 50 hours? That's exactly the challenge that two teams of South Burlington High School students took on when they participated in the 50 Hour Student Film Festival held this spring.

This year, South Burlington students Asya Begovic, Tess LaLonde, and Daria Noonan-Wehmeyer (Syzygy Studios is the name the students chose for their video studio) competed in and ultimately received the honor of Best Overall Film; with a premier of their film, "The Conspiracy Collective," screened at the Roxy Cinemas May 30th.

According to the festival site, the goal of the contest is to write, shoot, and edit a short film in a weekend. The contest occurs between a Friday and the following Monday with the prompt for the contest posted to the festival website around 2:30 pm the Friday of the contest weekend. Participants may not make any creative changes to their films after midnight the Sunday of the contest, but have until that Monday to export and upload their film to Vimeo.com. 

A panel of independent judges rate the films based on their merits in screenplay, cinematography, sound, art design, and editing. One film is chosen as the best film of the contest. There are also awards for best screenplay, cinematography, sound, and editing.

According to SBHS DesignTechnology teacher Philip Galiga, the Fifty Hour Film Contest (http://fiftyhourfilm.com/wp/) is a competition designed specifically for Vermont Middle and High School Students. Founded in 2005 by two Vermont High School Digital Arts teachers, Tom Preska and Jim Shields, the contest was envisioned as a fun way to bring top student film makers from around the state together to learn from and experience the work of their peers. The last time South Burlington High School competed in the contest was 2014. In addition to Syzgy Studios, SBHS student team, Burger, entered this year and you can view their submission below.

Galiga said,  "I'm super excited and happy for the students!"

Congrats to all!